Sonic mous repellent: safe for reptiles?

[kurgan]

Desperation from out mouse infestation problem has caused me to buy some sonic rodent reppellents that you plug in and claim to drive mice and rats away. They are safe for cats and dogs etc but I can't find any information on their impact on reptiles - specifically our ball python and cooter turtle.

From what I gather reptiles tend to only hear low frequency sounds and I suspect that this will be ok but I'd be grateful for some more advice before plugging them in!
Cheers.

[elevatethis]

Snakes don't have ears, so they aren't hearing anything...

Technically they do have "inner ear" structures that allow them to maintain equilibrium and sense ground vibrations. Wiki says their "hearing" is most sensitive to 200-300 Hz.

Check the frequencies emitted by the rodent repeller thing.

Might want to call a professional exterminator, too...

[Mendel's Balls]

Snakes don't have ears, so they aren't hearing anything...

Technically they do have "inner ear" structures that allow them to maintain equilibrium and sense ground vibrations. Wiki says their "hearing" is most sensitive to 200-300 Hz.

Their inner ear allows them to pick-up both ground and airborne vibrations, so they can hear.

See this thread for details and references.

[elevatethis]

Isn't that what I said?

[Mendel's Balls]

You said they cant hear....which simply is not true. They cant hear exactly the same way we do, but that doesn't mean they cant hear.

You also implied that they could only pick up ground vibrations, when in fact research has shown they are more sensitive to certain airborne vibrations.

I thought your statement was misleading.

[elevatethis]

Do you have a link to any of those articles....I was always under the impression they didn't "hear" in an auditory sense as what you and I might relate to. Pretty interesting...

[Mendel's Balls]

See the thread linked above they are in there. Searching Google for "somatic hearing" will bring up some things as well.

Unfortunately, the quarterly review article requires a subscription now. I could e-mail it to you if you like. (PM me first)

[Mendel's Balls]

To answer, the original poster's question I don't think it will harm the snake.

Anything over 2,000 Hz is considered ultrasonic. If you look at this graph, it does not appear that snakes can hear in this range. (See somatic curve).



I don't know what brand of rodent sonic repellent you are using......but this brand Pestchaser emits vibrations between 32,000 and 62,000 Hz. This is well above the documented range of snake hearing I've seen.

So I'd think it would be safe method for extermination and possibly a safer alternative to chemical methods.

[haveaball]

I think the hearing debate is a mute point anyway because the mouse plug ins don't even work for mice!!!

[haveaball]

...I meant - moot